Chris Sanders

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Christopher Michael Sanders (born 15 March 1960) is an American film animator and voice actor best known for co-directing the Disney animated feature Lilo & Stitch, and providing the voice of Experiment 626 and Leroy from Disney's Leroy & Stitch.

A 1984 graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Sanders began his career as a character designer for Muppet Babies. He also served as a storyboard artist, artistic director, and character designer on Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mulan.

On Dec. 16, 2006 several internet animation fan sites, including AnimatedNews.com, reported that Sanders had been removed as the director of the upcoming Disney animated film American Dog by John Lasseter. AnimatedNews.com and JimHillMedia.com (among others) speculated that Sanders was removed as director of American Dog allegedly because Lasseter thought Sander's take on the film was "too quirky for its own good."^[1] As of Dec. 19, 2006 there has been no confirmation of this by Disney Feature Animation or John Lasseter. According to a 2/8/07 story in Variety, Sanders left Disney and directing duties on American Dog were given over to Chris Williams, a Disney writer.

In March 2007 Varierty also reported that Chris Sanders had moved to Dreamworks animation company and he had then taken over as director on Crood Awakenings, a project previously with Ardman Studios before their departure from Dreamworks. At the time Chris had this to say about the move:

"I've been so anxious to start working on things, and so I talked to a lot of people," he told Daily Variety. "I like the way DreamWorks looks at animation. Animation still has a lot of different places to go, and I don't want to miss out on a chance to try some new things with it."